It suddenly burst upon me that he took me for a lunatic. I buried my head in the covers and rocked back and forth between tears and laughter.
"Hi! what the ——'s going on up there?" cried a voice from downstairs.
"It's all right—all right, Bill," said our burglar hoarsely, "very affable party up here. Say, hurry it up a bit down there, will you?"
All at once it struck me that if I really frightened him too much they might decamp without making a clean sweep. I sobered at once.
"I'm not crazy," I said.
"Sure you're not," said the burglar conciliatingly.
"But I assure you—"
"That's all right."
"I'm perfectly sane."
"Sane as a house!"